To drain the auto section, unscrew the dipstick tube from the pan. 24mm
or 15/16 wrench. Some care is needed. It may be very tight and the nut
is soft. Refill is only ~2.5 quarts. Be careful not to over fill. To
drain the diff, remove the pan. VW no longer uses the cork gasket, is
now a fiber piece. No gasket and the "Right Stuff" works fine.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Don in North Carolina
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 2:55 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Automatic trans and diff draining

I want to drain (and refill with synthetic oil) both the automatic
transmission and the final drive (differential) on my 1988 Vanagon.  As
the
Bentley manual is spectacularly unhelpful on this, I have some
questions.

For the automatic transmission, I have tried draining it using the
dipstick
tube (with a plastic tube down into it and a hand pump) to siphon the
oil
out, with very limited results (maybe 1/2 cup - it's a cheap pump).  As
I
plan on replacing the pan gasket and filter (screen) in the
transmission,
can I just crack open the pan (carefully) to drain the transmission?  I
have
a very large (5 gallon) oil drain container to drain into, probably
3'x2',
and lots of shop towels...

As for the final drive, Bentley shows a bottom pan with no drain plug
and
shows no fill plug either.  Where are these located, so that I can find
them
when I crawl under there?  Is it best to remove the pan on this to
inspect
it as well?

Don in Reidsville, NC
1987 Vanagon GL Syncro (Suzie) - For Sale!
1988 Vanagon GL (Sylvia)
Why do they call it a fixed income, when mine is always broke?